Herta, Honda Head Indy Car Field at Mid-Ohio

• Rookie Colton Herta tops the time charts in opening day of practice for Honda Indy 200

• Another rookie, Felix Rosenqvist, impresses with fourth-fastest time

• Scott Dixon leads morning practice, finishes day seventh overall

LEXINGTON, Ohio (July 26, 2019) – Honda-powered rookie Colton Herta led the way Friday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the opening day of NTT IndyCarSeries practice in preparation for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200.Herta’s best lap time of 1:05.7292 was more than two-tenths of a second clear of second-quickest Simon Pagenaud.

Another Honda-powered rookie, Felix Rosenqvist, ended the day fourth fastest, followed by Ryan Hunter-Reay’s Andretti Autosport Honda, with the Arrow Schmidt Peterson Honda of James Hinchcliffe rounding out the top six. Defending series champion Scott Dixon led the morning session, but dropped down to seventh for the day after a late red flag [for a crash by Josef Newgarden] prevented him from making a run on the alternate, softer-compound Firestone “Red” tires.

Activities continue Saturday at Mid-Ohio with final practice and qualifying for Sunday’s 90-lap race. The 13th round of the 2019 season begin at 4 p.m. EDT Sunday, with livenetwork television coverage on NBC.

Colton Herta(Harding Steinbrenner RacingHonda)Fastest in Friday practice: “I picked up 1.1 seconds [on the Firestone Red tires], so it is a pretty big step up considering how short the track [length] is here. There are a couple of places where you really gain time [on the Red tires] like Turn 12. It really ‘grips up’ when you have the Reds on. Turn 2 and Turns 4 and 5, too. The Capstone car has been great, and we’re ready to go racing now.”